2013 Spring Football Preview: Venice Indians

VENICE - The Venice Indians were very inexperienced on the football field last year. Next season, they will be more experienced, but they will have to replace an all-state quarterback.

Gone is Kale Youtzy from under center, a man who made 3rd team All-State. The Indians have a plan on replacing him though: Riverview transfer Dom Marino.

"He's come in and shown great leadership. He has done a good job so far. We have a lot of pieces of the puzzle already in place, so we are way far ahead of where we were last year," says head coach John Peacock.

Even with a young team last season, Venice made it to the regional semifinals before losing to Manatee. This year, they have more playing time under their belts.

"We’ve got a lot of our offensive line coming back; we got 4 returners…looking good. We got a running back coming back. We pretty much have the team we had last year coming back," says Indians OT/DT Tyler Gauthier.

It says something about a program when their expected down year still lands them in the playoffs. Head coach John Peacock and his staff continued to cement the successful tradition at Venice; a tradition that was helped along -- and is still being perpetuated -- by now Florida Gator Trey Burton.

"It feels good to be in the playoffs and have a winning season every year, but we are trying to take it to the next level as a program, as a team, as Venice high school. Move onto the next round and to the next phase of this football program," says Coach Peacock.

The Burton family is not done yet. Trey and Clay's little brother Jake McFarland is on the JV team, so the family legacy is not cemented just yet.